For those of us following the impact of open access publishing, some news below from DLF Ally JISC, regarding the first and (now) second year of its 
Open Access program.

David

*** Press Release: Successful Publishers Announced under JISC's Open
Access Programme ***

6th January, 2005. Following a remarkable year for the spread of open
access ideas and the gathering of momentum for real change, the New Year
begins with an announcement by JISC of the winners of funding under the
second round of its Open Access programme. Following the success of the
first year of the JISC programme, the decision has been made to award five
publishers funds to support open access delivery for their journals.

A total of £150,000 will be awarded to some of the key scholarly
publications in their fields. These journals are: The New Journal of
Physics (published by the Institute of Physics Publishing); Nucleic Acids
Research (Oxford University Press); Journal of Medical Genetics (BMJ
Publishing Group Ltd); the journals of the International Union of
Crystallography (IUCr); and The Journal of Experimental Botany (The
Society for Experimental Biology). JISC funding will ensure the waiving of
all or part of the submission/publication fees for all UK HE authors. The
New Journal of Physics, the IUCr and the Journal of Experimental Botany
were successful bidders in the first round of funding, these further funds
enabling them to consolidate the considerable gains made during the first
year of the programme.

Preliminary results from the first year of the open access programme show
that JISC funding has enabled significant advances to be made by the
successful publishers and their journals in terms of submissions, access,
visibility and costs:

The New Journal of Physics has seen UK submissions increase by 300% in the
last six months, while access to articles from UK users has risen 71%. The
journal's impact factor has risen from 1.76 to 2.48.  The Journal of
Experimental Biology has seen access rise by 27%, with JISC support
enabling the journal to maintain its subscription costs at the 2004 level.  
Access has risen by some 300% for the journals of the International Union
of Crystallography, "making UK crystallographic research much more visible
worldwide."  Uptake of PLoS Biology, a new journal, has been "remarkably
robust", and JISC support has helped PLoS's strong advocacy role,
including oral testimony to the House of Commons Select Committee by
Harold Varmus, founder of PLoS.

Peter Strickland, Managing Editor of the IUCr journals, welcomed the
continued investment represented by the second round of the JISC
programme: "I am very pleased that the IUCr has been awarded a second
round of funding by JISC. This will give valuable impetus to our
open-access publishing initiative, which has received very positive
feedback from our authors and editors, and has significantly increased
access to structural science research worldwide."

"With the rapid growth in Open Access options, the ability to fund
publication charges has become an important consideration in the decision
where to publish," said Ken Lillywhite, Journals Business Director at
Institute of Physics Publishing, another second-time recipient of
funding.  "By funding publication charges for New Journal of Physics, JISC
has effectively removed this barrier for every British scientist working
in a HEFCE-funded institution.  Since JISC's decision to offer financial
support for authors publishing in our journal, we have received many more
UK papers from scientists working in British universities. We look forward
to further growth in 2005."

Mary Traynor, Managing Editor of the Journal of Experimental Botany said:
"The Journal of Experimental Botany is the only high ranking plant science
journal offering an Open Access option to all plant scientists. We have
been highly encouraged by the initial success of our policy and the JISC
award will support development of our initiative in addition to enabling
us to waive Open Access fees for UK authors."

Professor Eamonn Maher, Editor of Journal of Medical Genetics, commented:
"I think this is a very exciting development that will be followed with
great interest by journal editors, authors and subscribers. The JISC
support has provided a wonderful opportunity to study the possible
consequences of an open-access policy for a clinical medical journal."

"We are delighted that JISC is supporting our open access initiative with
Nucleic Acids Research," said Martin Richardson, Managing Director of
Oxford Journals at Oxford University Press.  "NAR is one of the most
prestigious journals to make a complete switch to open access, and our
University Press status means that we're keen to experiment with, and
learn from, new distribution models that might help make research more
accessible.  Support from JISC will really help us and our authors test
the viability of this model."

Lorraine Estelle, JISC Collections Team Manager, who announced the results
of the second round, said: "The first round of this programme has been a
significant success, giving us some much-needed evidence of the potential
of open access to stimulate research and to make visible the outputs of
researchers in the UK. We look forward to the further success of this
programme."

A further round of funding will be made available to the publishing
community later in 2005. 

For further information, please contact:

Lorraine Estelle (JISC) on 020 7848 2563 or 07767 297171 or e-mail:
mailto:[log in to unmask] 
Or
Fred Friend (JISC) on 01494 563168, or 07747 627738, or e-mail:
mailto:[log in to unmask] 

Publishers
Peter Strickland, Managing Editor, IUCr Journals - 01244 342878 or
mailto:[log in to unmask] 

Mary Traynor, Managing Editor, Journal of Experimental Biology - 01524
594587 or mailto:[log in to unmask] 

Tim Smith, Publisher, New Journal of Physics mailto:[log in to unmask] 

Andrea Horgan, Managing Editor, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd - 020 7383 6263
or mailto:[log in to unmask] 

Rachel Goode, Communications Manager, Oxford Journals, OUP - +44 (0)1865
353388 or mailto:[log in to unmask]